I wanted to get in the book too...
Written: May 08 '01
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: A well-written and entertaining unique reading experience
Cons: Wanting more of one story and less of another at times.
The Bottom Line: A great "get in the writer's head and more" that uses its form to strengthen its point of compartments, spills and blends.
|
|
|
| prettyrain's Full Review: Ursula Hegi - Intrusions |
And I thought I was a freak. No, really. Sometimes characters from stories I’m working on will talk to me. They’ll tell me what they want to do, or what they refuse to do, or why they’re more important than I realize. This is not the kind of thing I usually admit in public. I’m nuts, right? Imaginary characters of my own creation talking at me and rebelling?
Well, then I found this book, “Intrusions,” by Ursula Hegi. Hegi is a fiction writer and I’ve read (and recommend) her novels, but when I read this I was amazed! The whole novel is about a writer whose life keeps interfering with her work. Or maybe it’s the other way around? Perhaps both.
The book opens with, “Megan Stone was walking along a deserted beach. You will probably ask, Why another book about another woman walking along another beach?” And the reader is suddenly in the thick of it. In the head of the writer. In the heads of the characters. In the story of Megan and her husband Nick. In the home of the writer and her children. Immediately it’s obvious that the writer of this story is also talking to us (readers) as she writes. We’re in on her thoughts while she tells the story.
Except then the characters start talking to her as well. And showing up in her life – in her home, her car, while she’s eating dinner with her family – to demand things! They want their characters to be more sympathetic, to use different words, to be able to explain various actions for themselves.
And throughout all of this – the writer talking to us and telling the story and the characters talking to her – she (writer) also lets us peek into her daily life… “This chapter belongs to my husband, who is taking our sons to Burger King so I can write.” In a chapter that starts with, “Have I mentioned that I’m a closet writer?” we get to see a sketch her son drew of her at a typewriter, “Story Writer.. My Mommy.” In another chapter she tells us how guilty she feels because one of her sons is whining at the door for her attention while she is writing and trying to ignore him.
And of course, there is the story of Nick and Megan, the actual story that our writer set out to write, and we get to learn about them and even see some scenes revised or changed completely. Hegi plays in the writing form and tries everything.
I would probably read the story of Nick and Megan by itself, without all the revisions and talking back and intrusions, but I’d hate to miss out on all this fun.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
prettyrain
|
|
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Reviews written: 31
Trusted by: 27 members
About Me:
Book-loving, coffee-drinking writer, zine editor, mom and slacker loving the serendipitous life.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.